On May 8-9 the whole world celebrated 60th anniversary of the end of the war. World War II.

I am not going to tell you about it. You have heard and read a lot about it lately. I am sure you watched the Victory parade broadcast on TV from Moscow. A similar parade was also held in Samara (formerly Kuibyshev), the second capital of the USSR during 1941-1944, where all the governmental offices and foreign embassies were transferred. It was in Kuibyshev that the first performance of the 7th Symphony by Shostakovitch took place. It was in Kuibyshev that the bunker for Stalin was built. It has an interesting history. It was built in eight months and even the people who lived nearby did not know about it! It was a secret until 1992 when it was opened to the public as a museum. There is no documentary evidence whether Stalin was there or not. But there is evidence that Mr Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain at that time, visited Kuibyshev (it was an unexpected stop of the plane, due to the weather conditions). All these facts were shown in a new documentary, “The Second Capital”, made specially for this occasion by Samara TV.

Speaking of the parade, I must admit, I was very much impressed by the group of the veterans of the Allies who marched on Red Square. Yes, that was the victory for all, joy with tears in the eyes as our famous song puts it.

But the celebrations were not held only in Moscow. Three hundred war veterans from Great Britain, the participants of the “Northern convoys”, carrying the weapons and war equipment to the USSR, came to Murmansk to meet with their Russian colleagues. And even though Tony Blair was not in Moscow at the celebrations, Murmansk was visited by Duke of York.

The Northern Fleet also hosted the British man-of-war “Sutherland”, which took part in the navy parade.

Next to the column you will find material about the “Northern Convoys” by David Wright; and Richard Matthews’ impressions of his visit to Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, not long ago.